MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: ITengineers, once hot property in the marriage market, are no longer such a prize catch, going by matrimonial website trends and even traditional matchmakers.

A number of factors have contributed to this — uncertainty and layoffs in the IT sector; the threat of automation potentially affecting more jobs; and increased protectionist sentiment in the US under Donald Trump. That means Indian companies are hiring more people in the US, as opposed to sending over engineers from back home. Software professionals have clearly lost much of their cachet, especially when it comes to arranged marriages.

A recent ad placed by the parents of a prospective Tamil bride in a matrimonial column, for instance, ended thus: “(Seeks) IAS/IPS, doctor, businessman. Software engineers kindly do not call.”

Since the beginning of 2017, the percentage of women seeking IT professionals has slumped, said Gourav Rakshit, CEO of Shaadi.com, one of India’s biggest matrimonial websites.

“We have also simultaneously seen that the number of women looking for life partners in the US has been declining rapidly, especially since November,” Rakshit said. “What’s interesting is that the two may be correlated given political developments in the US.”

Indian women are more likely to relocate after marriage, which is why prospective grooms have been hit harder by the change in perception about IT.

At Shaadi.com, about 7% of women are looking for prospective spouses in the US. The number has been on a steady decline because of a broader trend, said Rakshit. Opportunities in India have been growing consistently and women today are more hesitant to disrupt their careers and lives to settle abroad. “However, we have seen a sharper decline in November (11%) and February (15%),” he said.

Rohan Mathur, senior vice-president at Jeevansathi.com, said that for US-based prospects, there’s a marginal dip of about 2% in interest (for marriage) received in recent months. “But it’s not a sharp drop as one might have expected considering the talk over IT job cuts,” he added.

Anecdotal evidence suggests there’s wariness all-round. A Mumbai-based matchmaker who specialises in the Tamil Brahmin community said that there had been a definite decline in interest in grooms who were software professionals.

“People are looking at other professions first, especially those perceived to be more stable,” she said.

A Bengali couple searching for a suitable match for their MBA daughter said that they had screened out several responses from engineers. IBluebottle, a matrimonial site exclusively for Indian professionals, has not seen any significant decline in interest in engineers, said cofounder Akhilesh Sharma. But that could be because there’s not much parental involvement when it comes to users of the site.

“Professionals are aware of the realities of the job market, and realise that what is happening in IT today could happen in some other sector tomorrow,” he said. “But parents setting up matches are another story altogether.”